Immediate response to recommendations from Poland. Kaliningrad has disappeared from Google Maps and Wikipedia

on the decision to change the name used in Polish for the city of Kaliningrad and the entire Russian exclave bordering our country. The Commission recommends using the Polish names Königsberg and the Königsberg oblast, while advising against using the Russian name in Polish, both for the city and the entire oblast. Russia, of course, is enraged by the decision. Russian politicians and propagandists claim that the return to the original name of the city and oblast in Poland is “Russophobia”. Kremlin spokesman, “a process bordering on insanity.”

Kaliningrad has vanished from Google Maps. King is there now

Now the Russians have another reason to be furious, because Google quickly adapted to the decision of the Polish office. In Google Maps, we will no longer find the Russian name of the city and the exclave, but Königsberg and Königsberg oblast. We will see them both on the map preview and after expanding the details, both in the browser version of Maps and in the mobile application for smartphones. A similar change has also taken place in the Google search engine itself. After entering the name “Kaliningrad”, the internet giant prompts us with the password “Königsberg – a city in Russia”. It is similar after entering “kaliningrad oblast” – Google then suggests the name “Königsberg oblast”.

Königsberg instead of Kaliningrad photo screenshot from Google Maps

Changes have also been made to in the case of monuments located in the city – e.g. St. Adalbert and the Blessed Virgin Mary in Królewiec (formerly “in Kaliningrad”). However, not all of them. For example, according to Google Maps, the Amber Museum is still located in Kaliningrad, not in Königsberg. Changes were also introduced in Wikipedia at a rapid pace. After entering links to old articles about the city, district and buildings, we are redirected to pages containing new names (also in the case of the aforementioned Amber Museum). Wikipedia has also updated the content of the Königsberg articles themselves. Of course, in both cases, the changes were applied only to the Polish language version of both Wikipedia and Google services. In other languages, the Russian name Kaliningrad is used.

Königsberg regained its name. Why?

Königsberg (actually Königsberg in German) was founded in 1255 by the Teutonic Knights. In the years 1466–1525, the city was the capital of the state of the Teutonic Order, which in turn was then a fief of the Kingdom of Poland, and later dependent on the Crown of Ducal Prussia. It was not until the second half of the 17th century that the city fell into German hands. The Red Army took the city only in 1945 after a siege lasting many weeks. Since then, Königsberg remained under the control of the Soviet Union, and then Russia. Commission for the Standardization of Geographical Names Outside the Republic of Poland, that the current Russian name of this city is an artificial creation unrelated to either the city or the region. In addition, it was emphasized that “the fact of naming a large city located close to the Polish borders after Mikhail Kalinin, a criminal co-responsible for, among others, issuing a decision on the mass murder of Poles (the Katyn massacre), has an emotional, negative character in Poland.”